By Emily GlazerThe Daily Northwestern
Northwestern professors are no Perez Hiltons, Gawkers or Gothamists, but they’re breaking into the blogging world one post at a time.
Web logs, online open forums where users write commentary and post related links, have been around since 1998, but they’ve gained popularity in recent years in a number of fields besides celebrity gossip.
U.S. News and World Report included professor blogs when it ranked the top 20 colleges of 2006 in October, listing 83.
The University of Chicago led with 17 blogs, while most other schools averaged between two and four blogs. NU was listed as having three, but additional professor blogs are available.
Eszter Hargittai, professor of communication studies, is an active blogger. She began Eszter’s Blog in May 2002 and joined Crooked Timber, a group blog, in September 2003.
She said she blogs because she “was interested in having conversations with a broader set of people.” She wanted to further discuss her research, which relates to the social aspects of the Internet.
She required students to maintain a blog about course readings in her “Teaching for the Internet and Society” class.
“I thought it really helped for students to engage with each other,” she said.
Hargittai said it was a requirement for students to read each others’ blogs and comment on them.
“In most classes if there is a writing assignment, students never see (what others are writing),” Hargittai said. “But students were writing for a more public audience.”
Paul Schrodt, a Medill freshman, said he thinks it is important for both students and faculty to blog.
“You could really create a discussion about (assignments) rather than just going to discussion each week or talking to your professors during office hours,” he said.
Schrodt said that is why he likes when professors use discussion boards on Blackboard, because “it helps students keep the interaction going outside of class.”
Other NU professors also have been blogging. Dorothy Roberts, a professor of law instruction, is one of the original bloggers on Blackprof.com. James Lindgren, also a professor of law instruction, is a frequent blogger on The Volokh Conspiracy, a legal blog.
The Medill School of Journalism now uses blogs to interact with students and spark open conversation.
MyMedill, a Web site for journalism students, features blogs by Dean John Lavine and three students, including Medill senior Matt Weir, The Daily’s public editor. There also are links to graduate students’ blogs, which are not affiliated with myMedill.
Lavine said he decided to blog to have an open conversation about the changes in Medill and to publicly answer students’ questions.
Lavine said his blog has not had very much traffic, so he is revamping his site to attract more students. Lavine said he hopes to put the blog in a more prominent place on the Web site and show featured topics to pull in more readers.
“It’s a two-way street,” he said. “(Blogging is about) what works for the blogger and what works for the people in the discussion.”
The graduate students and Medill seniors who blog on myMedill also do not receive many student comments, and usually comment on each others’ blogs.
Medill graduate student Daniel Honigman said he blogs “to express my ideas and to post videos and pictures.”
He said a student will comment on his photos once in a while.
“If someone wants to look at what my opinions are – more power to them,” he said.
But Schrodt said he is a bit suspicious as how far blogging will go at NU.
“I think that most professors are hesitant to start incorporating new technology like blogs and most students are too complacent to take the time to go on a blog and talk about readings unless they are required to,” he said.
Reach Emily Glazer at [email protected].
